Jeff Bezos Is Now Worth $200 Billion

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is now worth $200 billion. Bezos first hit $100 billion in 2017, is Forbes' wealthiest person in the world by 2018. Thanks to the pandemic, the richest man in the world got richer by a couple of billions more. As a result, Bezos became the first person in history to have a net worth of over $200 billion. 

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Bezos turned his 1993 online bookstore into an e-commerce titan. Little by little, he added more and more inventory to his online warehouse as demand went bigger. Along the way, Amazon swallowed smaller competitors and expanded into other services. By 2015, Amazon had a bigger market capitalization than Walmart.

Pandemic-led Boom

With the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, demand for online purchases shot up. People afraid to get infected stayed home, and most turned to online shopping to buy what they need. As more physical stores closed, more people went online to shop, where Amazon was waiting.  It offered everything from food to supplies to videos and exercise equipment. In addition, pandemic staples like sanitizers, toilet paper, and face masks are available.

As a result of all this demand, stock prices (AMZN $3,420.20) have gone up 80% since January. Along with it is Bezos' net worth, which depends a lot on his 11% stake in Amazon. In January, that stake was worth around $115 billion, and now its nearing double. Amazon itself is worth $1.7 trillion, making it the second-most valuable company in the U.S after Apple. Despite its considerable spending due to the pandemic, revenue reached almost $90 billion. And investors can't get enough, pushing the stock price to almost double its January rate of $1,898.01.

Bezos' shares in Amazon represent 90% of his personal wealth. In addition, he also owns a media company, the Washington Post, and aerospace firm Blue Origin.

The Centi-Billionaires

Jeff Bezos is by no means the only centi-billionaire among his peers in the tech community. The second richest person in the world, Bill Gates, is worth $116 billion and made most of his money in Microsoft. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently became joined this exclusive club. With Facebook hovering at $300 per share, his net worth reached $100 billion this month.

Close to joining is Elon Musk, whose EV company, Tesla, is the world's most valuable automaker by market cap. Right now, Musk is a few billion short, with his net worth at $96 billion this year. But if Tesla continues its streak, give him a few more months.

The remaining centi-billionaire is the only one outside tech, Bernard Mark Arnault. While the chairman of LVMH lost his spot earlier this year, he reclaimed it in a few months. Arnault is now worth $115 billion and is the 3rd richest person on earth.

How much is $200 billion?

Jeff Bezos would've been richer if he hadn't divorced his wife, MacKenzie Scott in 2019. During the divorce proceedings, he agreed to give 25% of his Amazon stake to her as part of the settlement. At present, that stake is worth $63 billion. Due to this windfall, Scott became the second richest woman and 14th richest total.

In pure compensation, Bezos receives around $1.7 million a year. This includes a base salary of $81,840, plus $1.6 million in other compensation. Amazon shoulders his security and travel expenses. Using this number, he makes around $5,005 a day, including weekends and holidays. For a CEO, these numbers are at the lower end of the spectrum. In contrast, Elon Musk received $595.3 million in compensation from Tesla last year.

If you use Bezos' net worth ($205 billion as of August 26) instead, the figures become eye-popping. For this year, he will have earned $6,500 a second. This is $1,495 higher than his daily take based on salary.

The numbers don't end there. Amazon, like most other tech stocks in the market today, is in the middle of an extraordinary bull run. Despite the current pandemic gloom and doom scenario, share prices keep going up. This means the net worth of Bezos and company are still about to rise. So, who wants to be a centi-billionaire?

Watch this as the Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos becomes the first person ever worth $200 billion:

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How much money is enough for you? A million? A billion? What number do you see is more than enough to make you stop working or retire? Share with us your thoughts on the comment section below.